To be honest, despite its flaws, it's going to be ok for most of the people, most of the time. Navigation is going to be a big boon.
Using it I haven't noticed major differences personally. Some restaurants are in the wrong location, but on the flip side I like the yelp reviews.
I'm sure they will improve on the areas that are flawed.
Directions being ok most for most people, most of the time, is hardly acceptable.
Google Maps had a tendency to drop pins for locations on the wrong spot. That meant I always had to confirm the location with street view, 100% of the time.
Going to the wrong spot can be catastrophic in some instances (wrong or non existent hospital.) In others it can be really bad (missing a critical meeting, walking in during a wedding.) I don't need to give more examples.
Google giving not so great search results is one thing. I can look at the page and quickly tell that its wrong. When maps are wrong, it can add another 30 minutes between figuring out you went to the wrong spot and getting to the right one.
If Apple's management thinks its acceptable to roll out beta products on all of their users, I'll be moving to Android.
I think his reasoning is that, if all the options are going to be beta-level products, he might as well use Android. I think Apple has always implicitly presented a deal where they tightly control their phone, but the experience is excellent. You don't care who makes the maps app because it "just works." If that's changing, users might be happier in an ecosystem where choice is more pervasive.
Directions being ok most for most people, most of the time, is hardly acceptable
Directions that are perfect for everyone, all of the time? Has that ever happened? I don't think so. I think it has always been a steadily improving mess. This may be a step backwards, but let's be realistic, here.
4. Content in the Products. (a) Map data, traffic, directions, and related Content are provided for planning purposes only. You may find that weather conditions, construction projects, closures, or other events may cause road conditions or directions to differ from the map results. You should exercise judgment in your use of this Content.
And Apple's iOS6 License agreement states[2]:
5. Services and Third Party Materials. (e) Neither Apple nor any of its content providers guarantees the availability, accuracy, completeness, reliability, or timeliness of stock information, location data or any other data displayed by any Services. [...] Location data provided by any Services, including
the Apple Maps service, is provided for basic navigational and/or planning purposes only and is not intended to be relied upon in situations where precise location information is needed or where erroneous, inaccurate, time-delayed or incomplete location data may lead to death, personal injury, property or environmental damage. You agree that, the results you receive from the Maps service may vary from actual road or terrain conditions due to factors that can affect the accuracy of the Maps data, such as, but not limited to, weather, road and traffic conditions, and geopolitical events. For your safety when using the turn-by-turn navigation feature, always pay attention to posted road signs and current road conditions, and follow safe driving practices and traffic regulations.
There's basically no difference between the two. If the argument didn't arise when Google released their Maps product, or when MapQuest released their product, then there's no reason to be making the same argument against Apple for their maps product. The idea that someone will use Maps to get to a hospital and end up dying or becoming severely injured because they were told to take a left at Alberkerky and got lost is pretty weak. We might as well start arguing about how US Republicans are going to kill grandma and US Democrats are going to redistribute your wealth because that argument has more of a chance of actually affecting the lives of people, but is still as much of a emotionally charged fallacy as maps causing injury or death.
It would be one thing if a search for a hospital on iOS failed by returning "Not found." It's quite another if the search returns an abandoned warehouse 6 miles away.
Good luck convincing a jury that this isn't negligence, especially when Apple knew very well that their data was garbage.
The Google Reader redesign fiasco? Google Wave to Google+ transition?
It's not like Apple "usually reverts in quality" either. This was a business decision, probably forced. They had to create something of their own for maps from what they could license and buy quickly.
Goes to show that you should not depend on your competitors for core technology. Which Apple always tries to avoid, but probably in 2007 (when the iPhone come out) the didn't think of Google as a competitor. They weren't in the phone business back then...
In what could be a key move in its nascent wireless strategy, Google (GOOG) has quietly acquired startup Android Inc., BusinessWeek Online has learned. The 22-month-old startup, based in Palo Alto, Calif., brings to Google a wealth of talent, including co-founder Andy Rubin, who previously started mobile-device maker Danger Inc.
Thinking that a maps app without transit and biking directions is "good enough", even if the driving and walking directions were accurate, betrays an extreme bias and disconnect with the way a lot of the world gets around.
For Apple's set of rich customers in the U.S., yeah, maybe driving and walking are good enough. But "most of the people" is a huge overstatement.
Uhh...Apple has plenty of customers in metro areas like the Bay Area or New York, Tokyo, etc. that rely heavily on public transit (I'm one of them). There are plenty of reasons to hate on Apple but stupid populist rage is not one of them.
It doesn't matter to customers whether or not the data will eventually improve - there are significant feature and quality regressions today that will cause delays in iOS6 adoption and directly work against the popular perception of their most important product. Everyone get their digs in now, because the titan doesn't stumble often.
Apple has been virtually printing money with the iOS products because they consistently, if incrementally, offered better and better products. Products that, for most users, offered a genuinely good to great experience and products that challenged the market to be better – far better – than they had before. This, as far as I can tell, is the first really big snafu in the user experience and that may be worrisome.
The thing is – and what the apple fans are all afraid of (but few may admit) is that this isn't just a stumble, but rather, the first major indicator of what a post-Steve Jobs Apple product experience is like.
Every good ride comes to an end – it's just a question of when and how.
> The thing is – and what the apple fans are all afraid of (but few may admit) is that this isn't just a stumble, but rather, the first major indicator of what a post-Steve Jobs Apple product experience is like.
I'm not afraid of it because it's bullshit. Where do we lay the blame for the YouTube app then? Or the huge engineering problems with the original MacBook Air? When Steve Jobs tried to kill iTunes for Windows and the App Store, how was he looking out for the user experience? I have little doubt the much-derided contacts app for Mac and iPad was a direct order from SJ. His influence was a mixed bag.
The only people who deify Steve Jobs' every move in Apple like that are people that aren't actually fans or aren't actually paying attention. Steve Jobs had a great vision, but he made bad decisions and good ones. As long as Apple is still doing exponentially better this week than last week, and they are, then the naive ones in this equation are the ones placing any amount of weight on "post-Jobs Apple" yet. We aren't even close to that.
The first macbook air, despite engineering issues, was widely viewed as an amazing step forward for portable computing and it, echoing the iPhone, pushed the industry forward considerably.
Say what you will, it was still a major success and yet another feather in Job's cap, as viewed by the general public.
Don't think for a second that I'm saying Jobs was perfect in any way – but there is a general vision of Apple under his leadership as being the golden goose – Apple hasn't had a huge public fumble in the last decade that has been able to make its core customers question its ability to deliver ever increasingly good user experiences.
There have indeed been mistakes, but none of them have seemed to really injure the giant that is Apple. That generalized success has largely been credited to Jobs – with strong help from Cook and Ive. With Jobs' passing, it has been a real question as to whether Apple can keep that string of big successes and minor, if any, failures going.
What I'm suggesting is that if not fixed quickly, the maps experience downgrade will be viewed as a sign that post-Jobs Apple isn't the same and that may be dangerous for Apple.
I can't agree, I think mythmaking is unnecessary. Steve Jobs put his fair share of cold garbage onto the market.
Apple's bigger than anyone ever dreamed they'd be and they're the global standard bearer in smartphones. Any platform regression anywhere now affects millions of customers. The Mac is a piffle compared to iOS.
Edit: I will definitely agree that the fallout from this problem will be greater than any they've ever faced.
